Most times when we consider the reasons for filming conference presentations, it is because some are not able to attend, and an on-demand streaming version can be viewed at any time after the event. But what if you are the presenter, and traveling to the conference is not time or cost effective?

Tips for creating effective educational videos

Moving your course into the online or blended format in most cases means creating videos. Don't simply record your hour-long lectures! Research indicates that students do not engage with online lecture content in the same way that they do in a classroom setting. Shorter, single concept videos of 9-12 minutes or less are much more effective than long lectures.

A rubric provides an outline of the grading criteria for more assessments and how each criterion will be scored. Rubrics are usually used with subjective assessments such as papers, presentations, projects, and discussions.

Have you ever been traveling or not at your computer and needed to check on your course? If the answer is yes, then Canvas has provided an option for you. The Canvas for Teachers mobile application provides teachers the ability to facilitate their course on the go.

eLearning communication in Canvas can be easily accomplished using the Inbox and Course Announcement tools. Instructors can communicate with students and faculty, and students can collaborate with instructors as well as their peers using these course tools.

A new video assessment tool in Canvas, this allows students to submit recorded or live videos for the teacher and class to view, assess, and post time stamped comments that appear throughout the video.

There is a lot of talk about making courses accessible for learners. New federal laws as well as lawsuits against universities add an urgency to making courses accessible for all learners before a student with a disability registers for a class. Fortunately, there are are four simple steps that can make a big impact on course design.

Instructors have the opportunity to interact with students frequently in online discussions for small classes; however, this is more challenging in large online classes. Here are a few tips to maintain instructor presence and student participation in online discussions without becoming overwhelmed. Visit Strategies for Managing Online Discussions for more details.

2016 Canvas InstructureCon Conference keynote speaker, Angela Maiers, author of several books has teamed up with Microsoft to help educators broaden their classroom on her new Choose2Matter global initiative. The Choose2Matter movement challenges and inspires students to work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions to real-life situations. Her presentation, Getting Technology Right was a timely piece to what we all experience in eLearning.

Touchcast is an application with multiple features that are useful in lecture capture, such as annotation of images, videos, or on whiteboards. It also allows the recordings to be saved as mp4s, which can be uploaded to Kaltura. This free app is the one I would use if I needed to record outside of the studio.

The quizzes feature in Kaltura makes it possible for you to add quizzes within your videos. Students may watch a portion of the video, pause for a quiz within Kaltura, and then, continue with the video. This eliminates the need for the student to navigate away from the video to take a quiz or wait until the video is over. Check out this video to see how it is done.

Justin Moon, Manager of Media Production in the Division of eLearning & Professional Studies, shares how he worked with School of Engineering Professor Dr. Karthikeyan Lingasubramanian to capture whiteboard data and use media to enhance the online portion of his blended/flipped class and make it a better learning environment for on-campus, as well as online learning.

A Learning Tools Inoperability (LTI) is a third party tool that may be added to a Canvas course. LTIs provide quick access to external websites, apps, and tools, such as YouTube, Dropbox, or Google Charts. LTIs are also referred to as apps. Instructors, depending on your department’s configuration, can add LTIs to their course by visiting the ‘Apps Center’ under Settings. For more information on the App Center, review ‘How do I use the App Center in my course?’

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